Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Adventuring out: Beetle, baby, and me

Henry is now 2 months old, and my post-baby posts have been, um, a little sparse. As I'm returning to feeling more like myself again (or at least, a version of myself who can live on a lot less sleep), I hope this will improve!

But we have now had some adventures out of the house!

I admit, I haven't had the guts yet to face my ultimate fear: going to the grocery store with Henry by myself. I just can't quite get over the thought of having my cart loaded up with frozen food, only to have Henry start screaming uncontrollably. Then I have to decide: do I rush out of the store as fast as I can (what I would want to do), but leaving my cart abandoned? Or do I try to get it together, calm him down in the store, and finish the shopping trip? (The latter is more reasonable sounding, but a lot scarier!)

Anyway, I have at least ventured, just me and Henry, to the next most terrifying public place: the mall. This trip required the stroller. But I can now say, from personal experience, that you can fit a baby in a carseat AND a stroller into a Beetle...but it's not gracefully done (by me, anyway).

The only way I can get the stroller to fit is by putting it in the back seat next to Henry. And that involves either hoisting it in through the trunk, or angling the thing in through my driver's side door. Both are difficult. I should have taken up weight lifting!

On the other hand, I have to say, I felt greatly accomplished when I did manage to do this and stroll around with my baby out amongst other actual people. I felt like a pro. (That is, after I realized that I couldn't take the escalators with the stroller and had to locate the elevators in the parking garage to actually get into the mall.)

A much easier feat is going on a walk in the park. This excludes the Beetle from the fun, but it does save gas!



Henry on our first walk, just the two of us.

[EDIT: The sun shade is down only for photographic purposes...he's safely covered up during the walk!]